Good post, thank you OP. This thread has made a couple of things clearer.
I must admit that I have wondered about the three days and three nights part of it – although it doesn’t really matter about the timescale, I guess. The message and the meaning is the most important thing and the Crucifiction and our redemption is the vital thing.
I was very upset by Woppit’s thread title and I’m glad that there is another thread on here which is much more meaningful.
There are some pagan festivals that have been incorporated into the Christian calendar – Yuletide / Christmas, Eostre / Easter but this just makes it more interesting. God is the same God whatever we call him but we all worship in different ways and maybe at different times. It matters not, Christian or Islam or Buddhist or something else. God is God.
There is evidence of Bibilical events in history – I think it was Josephus who wrote about Christ in his writings – and there is evidence of the Flood in C Leonard Woolley’s book about his excavations in Ur of the Chaldees. (Fantastic book by the way).
Julian – not a very good Christian but would like to be a better one.